Treasure Beach entertain Harbour View in rescheduled JPL fixture
Teams in the top and bottom half will take the spotlight in the Wray & Nephew Jamaica Premier League this afternoon as the first round nears its completion with two rescheduled games from match week seven.
In the first game at 3:00 pm, 13th-placed Treasure Beach FC entertain 11th-placed Harbour View FC at St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.
The St Elizabeth-based club has found the going tough in its debut season with just two wins from their 12 outings. Treasure Beach, in the relegation zone on seven points, are on a seven-game losing streak and have gone scoreless in their last four matches.
However, Head Coach Omar “Rambo” Wedderburn says they intend to make some adjustments for today’s encounter.
“We’re confident as usual but not overconfident. As you can see, we always play out a good first 45-60 minutes but after that, we always crumble so we’re trying to fix that especially for the second round. It’s not like we are not playing but the most important part of the game is goal scoring and playing [well] without scoring means nothing at all to me. Right now, I rather play bad and win games than people say we possess the ball [well] and lose,” he said.
Their opponents, Harbour View, aren’t in a far better position as the former champions have struggled to pick up wins themselves. The Stars of The East have just one win from their 11 games but their six draws have helped them to nine points, two ahead of Treasure Beach.
Though they have the chance to overtake them in the table, Wedderburn isn’t taking them lightly.
“You cannot really watch the poor struggles of Harbour View because as a team, they are a more seasoned team than us, the players are more experienced so that’s where the difference comes in. We are not hanging our hopes too high or too low but we need three points now, so each game we always try to give it what we got but right now we have to go out there, anything is anything to try to get a point or three,” Wedderburn said.
In the game at 5:00 pm, fifth-placed Cavalier FC host fourth-placed Arnett Gardens FC at Sabina Park.
After a relatively slow start to the season, last season’s beaten finalists Cavalier have four wins in their last six outings, including three-straight wins against Treasure Beach, Dunbeholden FC and Molynes United.
They’ve also kept three straight clean sheets after going eight matches without one, much to the delight of Head Coach Rudolph Speid.
“We decided to work at it so it’s really a good feeling that we’ve been able to achieve three in a row but the work isn’t finished, we’re trying to be better,” he said.
It may be a difficult task to make it four in a row as Arnett Gardens have found the back of the net in 10 of their 12 games this season. The Junglists, on 24 points, also have a chance to move as high as second in the table with a victory.
However, a win for Cavalier, who sit on 21 points, could see them overtake Arnett in the standings but Speid is bracing himself for a close contest.
“One of the things about Arnett and Cavalier games is we hardly draw, somebody always wins. We’ve always had exciting games, both teams play attacking and want to score on every occasion. It can go anywhere. They’re on top of their game but Cavalier is shifting both strategy and how we play so we hope that we get the better of them. It’s going to be a tough game, they can really play, they like these big occasions, they strive on them. Both of us have wins over Mount Pleasant recently, it’s going to be even matched so it will be the team that executes better will win,” said Speid.
Following today’s matches, the first round of the league will end on Wednesday with rescheduled games from match week 8.